Emmerdale’s Dominic Brunt talks working with actress wife, what ‘drives him insane’ on set and getting through to bigots

He’s been one of the most popular faces of Emmerdale for 27 years – half of his life – and Dominic Brunt has told Metro.co.uk how he never takes his role as Paddy Kirk for granted.

In our in-depth chat, the actor tells me how he still gets nervous, drops some gossip about Paddy’s wedding to Mandy Dingle (Lisa Riley), discusses working closely with TV actress wife Joanne Mitchell, his most bizarre fan experience, and what drives him mad on set.

Do you still get ‘pinch me’ moments that you’ve been in the role of Paddy for 27 years?

All the time. Me and Mark [Charnock, who plays Marlon] talk about that constantly. I came from an engineering background, I was a welder, so I don’t know what the alternative was if I hadn’t thought, “I’ll give it a go for a few years and see what happens.”

It’s just been brilliant and we still absolutely love the job. I was 27 when I joined. I’ve been doing it for half my life now!

It still makes me nervous. I really like getting the scripts. I never go upstairs and ask what the storylines are because I like getting the scripts. It never passes me by, how lucky I am and what a privilege it is to be in the job. It’s incredible, really.

Do you remember first coming in? You were originally in it for eight episodes…

I was in for eight episodes and then they just continued it. I left for four months. I did the episodes and left and they wrote me back in after about four months.

Do you keep up with how fans respond to Paddy? He’s consistently one of the most popular characters

I joined Twitter a while ago, I think Danny Miller put me on to it. Because it’s light and shade I can’t really take the shade – the meaner side of it is a bit much to handle, really. I’m not sure if it’s a force for good or not. It’s certainly split people into packages, hasn’t it?

Dominic still gets nervous about playing his beloved alter-ego (Picture: ITV)

If it’s right wing you have to believe this, if it’s left wing you have to believe this. I don’t think the world was ever like that but now you’ve got to think people who have the opposite opinion of you are baddies and you are a baddie to somebody else.

Even with soaps I remember sitting watching with my relatives and people watching going, “I like him / I don’t like him / I like him now but I didn’t used to like him / I hate her / She’s great.”

It’s that polarising thing of social media and watching soaps like that, that I kind of stay away from. I think if you read all the reviews you only remember the bad ones, the ones that really sting and get in you, so I stay away from all that. I do occasionally post something, but it’s not a daily thing for me.

We’re heading towards Paddy and Mandy’s wedding which is almost exactly to the day 25 years since their last attempt. Was that deliberate?

We didn’t realise until somebody came and told us – I think if they’d engineered it that way it would have been mentioned in the script. So I think it just fell like that and someone went, “Do you know what, it’s 25 years since…” But we don’t actually mention it.

It feels more amazing that it’s just coincidence!

Exactly. I like things like that. When Lisa Riley left for all those years we stayed in contact all the time. She’s been a really good, strong friend of mine for years and it’s just lovely to be working with her again.

She’s just absolutely crackers, she drives me insane but in the best possible way! Never a boring day.

Over the years you’ve formed some good friendships. That must make going to work a lot better

Exactly. And it’s people who want to do well, who put the script first. Like Lisa is completely selfless – same as Mark and everybody else I work with. They want what’s best for the scene rather than what’s best for them. It’s like if Lisa does something that’s really funny, I’m proud of being part of that scene rather than thinking she’s got the laugh and I haven’t.

It’s never been like that, whereas I’ve done jobs before which is the competitive side of it where you think, “I didn’t know it was a race really.”

It’s been said a lot in cast interviews I have done, that it’s like a family there

Definitely. I think because there’s a group of us that work together who’ve been together for that long, it kind of transcends anything that’s like that. There’s no bickering or politics or anything like that, because all that was smoothed out decades ago. Everyone comes with an amount of respect and wants to do really well now.

Also if you’re going to be lazy and not learn your lines and try your best you either know where the door is or the job comes to an end for some people, for a reason. Why wouldn’t you want to do the best you can?

I’ve got friends who are struggling all the time for work and you just think, “They are so much better than I ever was at drama school and yet they’re the ones who are working in factories in between jobs.” That’s ridiculous, they should be right at the top of the mountain.

It seems to be a particularly difficult time for actors, especially since Covid

It’s peaks and troughs. I spoke to the chap who works at Provision – they supply all the technical equipment for ITV so they do Emmerdale and they also do independent stuff.

He said it’s in a trough at the moment, London’s dead, we’re quite buoyant up here. But then he said we’ve been here before three or four times over the past 20 years. Hopefully there will be an upturn but the world is a very precarious place at the moment.

Talking about the big Emmerdale wedding, do you see Mandy and Paddy as soul mates? 

Without a doubt. There’s loads of lines on the road to the wedding, he refers to the fact that he’s coming home and he’s back where he absolutely belongs. He never fell out of love with her. When people stop me they always ask “Where’s Mandy?” And they always did. It rang with people, I think.

For myself it feels like coming round in that big circle and I was delighted when she was coming back and she was saying, “What’s the workload like now?” And I lied to her and said it was quite light and we get plenty of time off [laughs]. She rang me and said, “You lied, you told me it was going to be light and I’ve not stopped and I can’t breathe!” The main thing for me was getting her back.

She doesn’t drink at all now and she’s completely straight and looks after herself, but it’s not calmed her down at all. She’s still absolutely crackers. You’d think it would chill her out a bit but it hasn’t. She’s absolutely mental.

Paddy’s other soulmate is Marlon. You and Mark have a really strong off-screen relationship too.

Yes. At the dressing rooms we’re beside each other so we can run the lines if we want to. He lives in Harrogate and I live in Halifax so we’re probably 30-odd miles apart, so it’s nice that we get into work and we can have a chat and we always put the world to rights and run the lines.

We like each other’s company, which is very fortunate. I think I was very lucky being put with Mark. Very early on we realised we were very similar people. I’ve said before, we like comics and films and that sort of thing.

You’ve done a lot of work with the horror genre. Have you got more plans to do that kind of thing?

Definitely. Mark really likes horror films. We don’t do the horror film festival any more, it was too much like hard work, three months work on the run up. I think we did nine years altogether. The horror films that I make, I do that with my wife [Joanne Mitchell].

We’ve got a premier coming up in August, on Thursday August 22, of a film that my wife directed, which we’re really looking forward to. It’s the sixth film we’ve made together.

A friend of ours called Tracey Sheals wrote a really great story and we adapted it into a screenplay and that got backing, which was great. It was the most we’d ever had, budget-wise, and it was filmed in Serbia over three months and the premier’s coming up now. So we’re really, really proud of that.

Do you find working with your wife is a positive thing or do you have differences?

It’s a really positive thing because with working in Emmerdale for so long, if you’re very busy you can go for like two years where you have to set off at the crack of dawn because I’m nowhere near work – it takes me an hour and a half to get to the village and it takes just under an hour to get to the studio.

We live in Hebden Bridge and I’d rather travel to work and travel back, but it means that sometimes you’re ships in the night, passing on the stairs. This is a way we can actually work together and it’s fun. They’re low-budget horror films.

The one that’s coming out, Broken Bird, has a £2.6 million budget for that, with James Fleet and it’s just great getting people like that. It means we can actually be together and work things out.

We’re only across the front room opposite each other working stuff out, so it’s really good fun. I don’t know where we’d be without it, actually, because it’s brought us together to do our own thing independently of Emmerdale.

You’ve got a lot of projects keeping you busy!

Yes, hopefully we’ll just keep going. I think Jo’s signed this three picture deal for the American company for the film, so that was the first one and there’s others in the pipeline. So she’s second unit again in Serbia and Italy on a big film then she’s going out doing locations in Rome for another one.

She’s always on the go. I’m less a part of these ones because she’s been hired as a director but I’m still that sounding board and I’m dead busy on Emmerdale, so it’s a good solution altogether.

It’s short spurts as well because we’re there for a concentrated period of time then we won’t make anything for a year or two then you’ve got to get it together for another year, whichever direction the budgets come from. It’s quite intense for that period of time then when it’s done, it’s done, there’s nothing else to do at all.

You’ve had some hard-hitting storylines recently with Paddy losing his daughter Grace and then the depression storyline. How was that for you as an actor?

I suppose a sense of responsibility first and foremost. I suppose strangely as an actor that’s why you want to do it. You want to get your teeth into that level of drama as well as comedy. I suppose comedy can be quite technical and cold because you’re working on your timing and delivery, the reveal or the rug-pull and your little tricks and foibles.

But that raw emotion, trying to hit those notes and trying to get it right and trying to put across a story that people have spent a long time doing, and knowing that it affects people in real life and could make a difference, was quite daunting, I suppose. There was the fact that I was being entrusted with that, I suppose.

When me and Mark arrived we were definitely on the light side and on the peripheral of certain storylines. We were the light-hearted comedy foils, maybe, and the show was different then. I’ve said it before, the train could have moved on without us, definitely.

When Gavin [Blyth] came in as producer he could have swept out the old and brought in the new with his new toys. I think they decided to invest in the stories and the relationship of Paddy and Marlon and trust us with more serious stories.

We knew we could do it, we’d both been to drama school, but to be trusted with that or to be trusted that the characters would shoulder it when the perception is that these were light-hearted goons was refreshing. I think we were lucky they took a chance and we’re still here. We could have gone, I think, 10 or 15 years ago.

Do you want to keep going as Paddy for as long as they’ll have you?

Definitely. I’ve got my outlet with the stuff I do with Jo, that keeps everything fresh. It still really, really makes me nervous. You see people coming and going all the time. I went to a leaving do last month for somebody who didn’t want to go. I’ve got a leaving do next week for someone who’s got to go out and see what it’s like.

We are really well looked after there and I think the only reason why that is, is because we put the effort in. You can’t please everybody, of course you’re not popular with some people. I’ll stay as long as they’ll have me, definitely, and I’ll put everything I can into it and take it very seriously.

I think if I went, if they wrote me out, I’d have nothing but gratitude towards what I was given.They made episodes I was thrilled to bits with so the fact that I’m still here 27 years later is ridiculous and I owe them everything, so much. It beats welding – and I loved welding. As long as it lasts I’ll be there and I’ll be grateful for it, completely and utterly.

What would you say is your proudest achievement over the years?

I suppose the longevity of the job and three storylines in particular – the Aaron coming out storyline, the loss of the baby and the depression storyline. Being given a job that transcends and can change someone’s moral compass. You can get through to the bigots with soaps.

You can morally educate people without being patronising. That’s quite some position to be in in life. Of course we’re puppets as well, we don’t write those lines, we’re given them, but you’re in a position to be trusted to say them and to try and make a difference.

At the same time it’s a frippery and I like the thought that we’ve been given a chance to play because it’s fish and chip papers the next day as well. It’s a chance to be silly and to embarrass your kids!

What’s your biggest pet peeve?

I suppose there’s two things. Bigotry is up there. I read a thing the other day: ‘First they fascinate the fools, then they muzzle the intelligent.’ That’s exactly what they do. I can’t stand all that.

Then I suppose on a small, personal scale, people not learning their lines drives me absolutely insane. I think it’s rude and lazy and it means you’re taking things for granted. It’s not our job to say to people, “Can you learn your lines?”

But I wish people would pull people to one side and say, “You know you’re being paid to do this? You know this is an honour to do and it’s a privilege? Why are you to meeting us half way by at least learning your lines?”

What’s your weirdest or funniest fan experience?

I’m a ridiculously shy person and it drives me insane sometimes that I wish I had that element that someone like Chris Chittell [who plays Eric] has where he’ll just swan around and be super-duper confident in his own skin and he can talk to people.

I was always really shy and I think because I was a welder, I had a job in a little unit and there was maybe one or two of us at the most and sometimes people coming in for jobs and that was like for five or six years after leaving school. It didn’t do my social skills well at all.

I think acting brought me out of my shell a little bit, it means I can express myself, but in social situations I’m all right round the kitchen table with six people or a group of people I know very well. But at a dinner party or anything like that I’m no good, I just look at the floor and apologise for myself and wish I was better than that.

I think loud, drunken people on trains is a strange one. You just can’t escape or get out of there. I had somebody years ago, who went, “Can I have a picture?” And went to kiss me on the cheek and just stuck her lips on me. I’ll never forget that, I was like, “Why did she do that?”

Then there was another couple who said, “Can we take a picture?” And I said, “Yes but I don’t want my kid in the shot.” It was my youngest, he was really little, in fact he was a baby and I was holding him.

And she just went to take the baby and said, “Well I’ll hold him and take the picture.” It’s just not normal! You can’t take somebody’s baby off them just so you can take a picture.

I think for the most part I have to say I’ve never had an awful experience. People only come up to you and only want to talk to you and only want a picture because they really like the show or they’re chuffed to meet you. I always try and remember that.

No matter how tired you are or whatever I never say no unless I’m with my children and I’d rather not take pictures with my children. I try and be as polite as possible saying I don’t want my picture taken because my children are probably like me, they don’t like eyes looking that way.

You have to keep that in mind, they’re only asking because they love the show and they’re pleased to meet you. 99.99% of the time it’s a positive experience.

They’re pleased to sit and talk to you and I don’t mind having a natter at all, one to one, with anybody.